Media Release - Four in five Australians support stronger licence conditions on telcos for spectrum

ACCAN

A significant majority (over 80%) of consumers support conditions to be applied to mobile providers as part of their use of a finite public asset - spectrum, according to new research published today by peak consumer body ACCAN.

Public support ranges between 81% and 84% for licence conditions that would require mobile networks to do the following:

• Invest to reduce the frequency and duration of outages (84%)
• Invest to improve network resilience in the face of natural disasters (83%)
• Meet minimum reliability requirements (83%)
• Provide an entry level affordable mobile service (82%)
• Invest in expanding mobile coverage in regional/rural/remote areas (81%)

When informed of the government’s planned licence discount for telcos of up to $1b on the last allocation, support strengthens slightly (up to +5%). Importantly, support was already strong before the ‘discount’ context was introduced, indicating that consumers believe telcos should have obligations attached to spectrum use as a matter of principle, not just because of any financial benefit they stand to receive. 

The new research, now publicly available, was commissioned by ACCAN and prepared by Essential Research as part of its Consumer Sentiment Tracker research which continues to track public views on mobile and internet services over time.

ACCAN CEO Carol Bennett said the findings reflect growing frustration with the value and quality of mobile services.

“These results show that Australians expect better from their mobile services and support stronger safeguards to make that happen.”

“The results indicate strong support for government introducing requirements for mobile networks to improve their reliability, which is a priority for consumers who have seen repeated network failures and loss of critical services including access to Triple Zero in recent months.”

“Consumers want to see license conditions that provide cost of living relief for the most vulnerable in our society, not cost of operating relief for telcos through unconditional discounts on spectrum license fees.”

“Seventy four per cent of respondents agree the government should take a stronger role in regulating telcos, in line with other essential services such as electricity and water. This means the public significantly supports practical measures like minimum reliability requirements.”

“Against the backdrop of stagnating investment in regional infrastructure, license conditions on telcos provide an opportunity to drive the investment in mobile coverage and reliability that regional, rural and remote Australians need to live and work.”

“The government needs to act here - Australian mobile users don’t care for half-baked industry excuses as to how mobile policy issues are ‘technical’ or ‘complicated’. Australians expect services that work when and where they need them in exchange for the social licence that enables these companies to turn a large profit. Too often, that’s not what they’re getting.”

“With strong public support, the case for attaching meaningful conditions to licences is clear. These measures would help align industry performance with community expectations and ensure better outcomes for consumers” Ms Bennett said.

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) is Australia’s peak communication consumer organisation. The operation of ACCAN is made possible by funding provided by the Commonwealth of Australia under section 593 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. This funding is recovered from charges on telecommunications carriers.

Alec Bennetts
Mobile: 0409 966 931
Email: [email protected]